


The most beautiful souls

by NatMatryoshka



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Duchess Satine is Rey's grandmother, F/M, Jedi Rey, Jedi/Sith au, Luke is Rey's master, Rey Kenobi, Sexual Content, Sith Kylo Ren, but mild, everything is different from the canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-11 05:49:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8956873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NatMatryoshka/pseuds/NatMatryoshka
Summary: Rey is a Jedi, trained by Luke Skywalker, granddaughter of Obi-Wan Kenobi, another famous Jedi master.Kylo Ren has moved his first steps as a Sith: he's sure of himself, stubborn. He wants to become a great Sith Lord, one day.They have felt in love too soon. [Jedi/Sith AU. Written for the Ring in the New Year with Reylo, by Reylo Fanfiction Anthology. Gift for dustoftheancients!]





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dustoftheancients](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dustoftheancients/gifts).



> A small warning: in this AU everything has changed from the canonical SW universe. Luke is Rey's master, Kylo is trained by (Darth) Snoke, Obi-Wan was Luke's master and Rey's grandad. Satine Kryze, the Duchess of Mandalore, had a child with Obi-Wan (Korkie, who is her nephew in Clone Wars series) and Korkie is Rey's father. I invented some of the details concerning the Jedi and the Sith Orders too, like I do for every AU, but many of them come from canonical stuff.  
> Now that you know something... have a good reading! :)

_The sands of Jakku slipped on her skin, scratching it. Everywhere she could look, she only saw sand and more sand under a dull sky, grey and lifeless, not like the other planets: they were alive._  
_The girl moved forward on the steep sand dune, muttering due to the effort. Not far from her, a big animal harnessed with rough ropes was walking with a slow pace, carrying a small creature on his back. A being who was muttering just like her, trying to protect his eyes with a pair of glasses. I got them too, the girl seemed to remember, and she put a pair of goggles with blue lenses on her face, covered in dust and quite run-down, but oh-so useful during sand storms. She smiled and kept walking, while the animal snorted and slowly disappeared: his rider adjusted the load of scavenged tools and didn’t even look back._  
_Nothing on Jakku was gentle: nor the people, hardened by winds and storms, nor the days made of suffocating heat and sand, or cold nights. Only a person had always smiled at her, wiping her tears away when she cried and collecting her dreams of a child, and that person lived in a small stone shed between the dunes, silent like the moon that was looking at her behind a cloud._

 

_Her grandfather._

 

_The girl smiled again and let that image went with her. In front of her, that home stood exactly like she remembered, the place where she had grown up. And her grandfather? Would he have been there?  
She took her goggles off and her green eyes shone with joy, a joy that was hard to describe. _

 

 

Rey woke up from her daydreams shaking her head: for a while, she thought she fell asleep. Jedi masters moved around her, throwing glances at each other and chatting, all together in the Temple’s hallway. Light seeped in from the big arches decorating the terrace, painting geometrical patterns on the light pavements. That was a nice morning, and her master didn’t make his appearance yet. How strange.  
She had dreamed about Jakku, the sandy planet in which she had grown up before her master could find her, and it wasn’t the first time. Sand and wind called her often, bringing images with them: pleasant ones, or terrifying and impossible to forget, but everytime she looked at her grandfather’s face she immediately felt safe. That night he wasn’t there, yet somehow she knew she was going to find him there another night, in another dream, as she did everytime she left home in search for junk. It wasn’t easy, leaving him to start her Jedi training… and that dreams did nothing but reassure her about the bond they shared. He was the only member left of his family…

 

She shouldn’t have. Jedi must not form bonds. It was strictly forbidden.

 

She leaned back, letting the stone cool down her back kissed by the sun. Coruscant was enormously bigger than Jakku and less hot, but she didn’t feel like home. She missed her planet’s sunsets, the multitude of stars she could count from her house, even the scavenging. But, above everything, she missed the old Ben Kenobi and his wise smile, always there to comfort her, making her feel special.  
Rey shook her head. No bonds. Luke chose her because he saw much potential in her. He had exchanged a brief look with his grandfather and they both realized she was the right person to train as a Jedi. Obi-Wan’s name was always respected, even though he had left the Order many years before and the Force run strong in his family, from himself to his son and to her granddaughter, like sap flowing through a tree. Luke patted on her head with love and watched her jumping between the scavenged tools and said _we need more time, I’ll be back when she’s ready._ He really came back, and her life changed from that moment on.  
A cheerful sound distracted Rey from her thoughts. She looked at her feet and immediately noticed the arrival of an orange and white spherical droid, a ball rolling towards her, beeping and buzzing to catch her attention. The girl smiled: she knew it too well, yet she was surprised to see it coming to her with such haste without being stopped by someone in the Temple… Jocasta Nu was probably frightened and angry down there, in the library. She giggled, feeling slightly guilty immediately after.  
The droid focused on her and rolled urgently, stopping at her feet, then it began to flash, trying to start an important conversation. The girl kneeled before the droid and gave a pat on its metallic head as a greeting. “Hi, little one. You have a message for me?”  
Another beep. BB-8 opened a compartment from his lower sections and pulled out a sort of black memory stick, placing it on the girl’s hand.

 

“He sent you? How kind of him. I guess he’s not expecting an answer, is he?”

 

BB-8 answered with a chirping sound. Rey took it as a yes. She hid the memory device in one of her inner pockets (her Jedi robe had many of them, they were really useful sometimes) and gave the droid another gentle pat, this time to say it goodbye. Some padawan turned his back to throw her a glance, but the largest part of them was used to the droids and other creatures coming and going through the hallways, so they didn’t pay much attention to it. The droid beeped and moved away from her, making its way between people with his usual hurry, unfortunately hitting a multitude of legs. Rey watched it disappearing and then she turned around, heading for her room on the dorm floor.

She had a message to read, and she was sure the sender didn’t want the receiver to open it in public, surrounded by inappropriate looks.

 

 

*

 

 

It wasn’t the first time she had walked through the dirty, chaotic streets of the Coruscant underworld, and everytime she had to go there she hoped that would have been the last time.

 

A sort of silent agreement existed between the upper part of the planet and its underworld: the police and the Jedi Order didn’t stick its nose in the illegal businesses taking place beneath their feet, and the underworld citizens avoided to show themselves on the upper levels. What someone did in the lower parts of the city stayed there… more or less. Surely it wasn’t easy to find some Jedi in the smoky bars, full of bored bounty hunters, so she obviously had to disguise herself. Rey sighed, covering her head with a large hood while walking on the main street, heading to one of the sleazy night clubs around there. She was forced to act that way every time they set a date, even though she had complained many and many times, begging him to find a better place. Another place would have been fine, as long as it didn’t have creeps and unsettling looks from every corner… but he was unmovable, and the innocent smile he gave her back then made Rey think he liked those undercover dates. So typical of him.  
He didn’t need to remind her the bar’s name, at that point they both knew it well enough. It was the biggest one in that district, surrounded by a small crowd of humans and other creatures crammed in front of the entrance: some of them were waiting to get in, others were busy watching the surroundings with a threatening look. She passed over a group of onlookers, avoiding the security without any fuss: the big Dathomirian who was patrolling the entrance was probably more of a presence to discourage those in search for troubles than a real security guard. Nobody asked questions in the underworld. Once they had memorized a stranger’s face, it was easy for everyone to walk through the streets and bars.

 

The music inside was deafening. A Twi’lek and a girl with purple hair were dancing near the big counter covered with pink and blue neon lights. Their movements were sensual, mesmerizing: first slow, then faster, inspired by the music that surrounded them and greeted by squalls and applauses from a group of men, probably drunk. The Twi’lek shook her lekkus and threw a kiss to Rey, who blushed and hid herself under her hood, embarrassed: she turned around and put her elbows on the counter, trying to ignore the looks around her, hoping the cape would cover her without showing who she was. The last thing she wanted was some curious people wandering around and telling everybody that a young Jedi hung out in that bar: Luke would have been the first to know, and she didn’t want that to happen.  
She always began with something to drink, waiting for Ben and for the familiar swish of his cape. He didn’t make her wait for too long: the crowd stood in silence for a while, looking at the entrance of a tall man dressed in black, who passed over them to sit next to the hooded girl, without paying much attention to the curious and slightly uncomfortable looks around him. The man seemed really unconcerned, but gave her a little smile, hard to notice. A smile that said here you are. So you joined me this evening too.

“This is the last time I want to a meet in a place like this.”

The man gave a gesture to the barman, then threw the girl an insolent glance. He smiled broadly. “Coruscant is not the most romantic city in the galaxy, my lady. And what if they saw us?”

“Better some Jedi than twenty bored bounty hunters. If you only wanted to look at some pole dancers, we might simply meet in one of the upper city’s bars.”

“And ruining the pleasure of visiting the underworld? Never. We’re loyal customers.”

 

The barman, a big Zabrak with a menacing expression on his face and a dirty apron, gave a glass to both of them, then he moved his attention to two other customers sitting on the opposite lap of the counter. Kylo took the glass to his lips and drank a sip. He behave like the most calm person in the world, as if he enjoyed every moment of his visit in a bar full of ugly mugs without a single trace of anxiety. The girl moved a foot back and forth, impatient, worried. She hoped for the moment they were going to leave the crowded room… but Kylo still had to enjoy his drink, and he didn’t seem to be in any kind of hurry.

Sometimes she spent some minutes watching the flood of humans and aliens that surrounded her and she tried to guess their stories: a hand coming from a sleeve, a pair of eyes exploring the room… everything she saw inspired her. And then she waited, peeking at the young men next to her. His long, thin fingers, full lips that moved when he asked questions and sipped his drink. He was so handsome, and he probably didn’t know it, because his attractiveness was subtle, yet impossible to forget. She indeed found him attractive, like those things people don’t usually find beautiful, but that she had always looked at in awe instead. She obviously never told him. She wasn’t sure he had never thought of himself as attractive…

 

… and then, they left the crowded, colorful room in search for their private space, the moment she loved the most (and Kylo had probably waited for it every single evening, too). He gave her a gesture with his head, then waited for the barman to leave a key in his hand and moved to the backroom with Rey, until they found a stair hidden by a stack of boxes. Their number constantly increased day after day, it was difficult to climb the stairs without stumbling on them, but at least that place was out of any possible curious person’s reach, somehow. The upper floor was a reign for silence and escape: they closed the doors, and the loud voices coming from downstairs became whispers. It was a place for low lights and secrets, and everything that happened in those dusty, bad furnished rooms stayed in there, unknown to Coruscant people. If it was the other way round, nobody would have chosen that bar as a getaway heaven.

Kylo took her hand: he didn’t hesitate. The light coming from neon signs hit their capes from the window, like innocent beams. She opened the door, and their heaven was there, in front of their eyes.  
He wasn’t sweet, during their first time: “sweet” was a word suitable to Rey’s personality, but it didn’t suit Kylo Ren the same way. He kissed her with passion, biting her lips and moving his hands on her hips, on the stomach hidden by her tunic, on her shoulders that trembled a bit. He’d have kept exploring her body without stopping, hungry and drawn by her soft body, if it wasn’t for her answer, just hungry as his. She amazed him. He never dared to imagine she’d have kissed him first in a slow pace, then more eagerly, almost inspired by his movements… something was born between them, and the urgency of that contact make her sure of that. Kylo slipped a hand under her tunic, and her small shudder made him smile. His hand was cold, but the leather glove was cold too.

“Rey?” he asked and didn’t add anything. The girl touched his lips lightly with a fingertip, then pressed his hand against her breasts. They were in her room, in the temple, andKylo had escaped from his place to visit her, because he wanted to be with her. She was happy, and she didn’t need anything.

They couldn’t go on because of a slammed door and some steps that worried both of them, so they decided to set their dates in the underworld, without any Jedi or Sith around. They looked in each other’s eyes, then Kylo disappeared in the darkness of the night: he didn’t want her to get caught with him in her room. But he kept in touch with her almost immediately through BB-8, the cheerful white and orange droid, a gift from Kylo. He gave it to her because he was sure she would have loved it, and it was useful to deliver messages. That boy was a Sith, he lived guided by his instincts, and Rey had fallen in love with him.  
Then, they had their very first time, on a lousy bed in one of that club’s rooms, but everything seemed beautiful to her, even more beautiful than the place where her grandmother lived, a Mandalorian luxurious palace. Kylo was very sweet that time, and he had kissed her for so long while his hands met hers, shy yet hungry, delicate but also wild, full of need. He undressed her with the fear one could have in touching a precious masterpiece or a relic, and lowered his eyes when she insisted in taking off his clothes, as if he was embarrassed by the way he looked without them. Rey caressed his lips, his chest, his stomach, kissing the scars that marked his back. He caressed her too, everywhere, memorizing the cadence of her breath, every small reaction. And after a bit, when they were both naked and tired on the cold mattress, he held her tight, so tight that Rey lost her arms’ perception for a bit.

They made love in such a sad corner of the galaxy, but so full of life. And when she sneaked back into the Temple, that night, she kept on holding dear the memory of his dark eyes, of a single tear that run down his face when she murmured his name, touching his cheek, then letting him slip into her.  
They had other dates to spend together: different from the first, but every one of them was important. Something was born, her feelings were right, something was making its way between the maze of her thoughts and ideas. Maybe a bond? Jedi spoke of the Force, which connected the ones who could feel it with an invisible string, sometimes connecting two lives indissolubly. Have Siths ever theorized about something similar?  
Kylo broke that reminiscent by closing the door behind them and taking her hood off. He smiled, and it was the sort-of-clumsy boy she had learned to love. He let his ironical, invincible mask fall down when they were together.

 

“We’re finally alone, my lady. How are you?”

 

She blocked him with a fierce kiss, full of hunger and passion she had never experienced in her life. She waited until Kylo returned the kiss, then she leant towards him while he brought her to the bed, on their favorite mattress, so thin and creaking, yet so lovely.

It was almost liberating.

 

 

*

 

 

 

“You’re thinking about something else, Rey. I can feel your distraction.”

The afternoon light seeped in through the thin shutters hung on the Temple’s stone windows, an expedient used by Jedi to not distract themselves from daily meditation. His master was sitting in front of her, on his grey chair, a composed expression on his face. Some thin wrinkles marked the sides of his mouth, hidden by the almost completely grey beard, some were scattered on his cheeks, under his eyes: wrinkles of a wise one, like her grandmother used to say, and Luke Skywalker was one of the wisest masters Rey had ever known.

He was nothing more than a grown-up boy when she met him, when she was a child, and they changed together: now she was going to become a Jedi and he was one of the Jedi Council masters. Still, even if Rey grew wiser and was more experienced with the Force, she conserved her impatience, the impossibility of staying in the same place for more than five minutes, like when she was a wild child running between the dunes of Jakku.

Some things never change, and maybe it was important they stayed the same.

The girl shook her head, opening her eyes to Luke. It was true, an isolated thought brought her off of her way, but she did her best to push it away and come back to see the sea waves in her mind, like Luke had always said to help her concentrate. That thought began with his grandfather’s face and finished with an impertinent smile, full and sullen lips that could hurt her or make every word softer, a hand that disappeared behind a black leather glove and a certain room and…

 

 _No. I’m falling back into it,_ she almost jumped and halted her mind. But Luke noticed her effort.

 

“I’m not scolding you.” He looked at the girl with his usual frown, like he could figure out every thought going through her mind without any problem. “You’re not a padawan anymore, you can handle your life and your emotions by yourself. But…”

He stood silent. Rey was silent too, her lips almost open, as one who’s waiting for a verdict with a pending breath, but Luke let the sentence fall. His lids closed on his blue eyes and he resumed with the training, making the crystal in front of him float just a few steps from his chest. Rey tried to join him, but hers remained motionless next to his saber, almost like it didn’t want to work that day: someone told her that kyber crystals could connect to the soul of the Jedi they chose, and that they imitated the gestures and the will of their owner. That was probably her case.

She closed her eyes, frustrated, even though she knew well that frustration and impatience would have never helped her to clear her mind. She breathed in, deciding to focus on something far from her, on a distant thought that could have never bring bad ones along with it. She tried to see the curtains in her room move with the wind, the smell of the sea mixed with the musky one from the wood, a bird that sang among the trees and kept on hiding, shy but merry. A faraway planet, ruins, the first Jedi temple that shone faintly in the warm light of the evening, slowly crumbling down through the ages but still majestic, loved by his master. She was on Ahch-To again and Kylo Ren wasn’t part of her life yet, there wasn’t a small hole created by the absence of his grandfather in his heart, a hole that hurt her. She could almost feel those curtains, the fabric tickled her hand. She would have seen the sea and the small islands scattered around in an almost random way, if she’d pointed her look outside of the window.

The crystal began to float again, even with some uncertainty. Their connection was there.

Luke breathed slowly, and for a little moment Rey felt like the whole Coruscant was in that room, and as if they were alone in that enormous planet so full of people and chaos. The other masters spared their free time in the library, the younglings surrounded master Yoda full of that enthusiasm that was typical of their age, but the feeling of being trapped in a safe bubble had always filled her mind. It was only a matter of focus, she only had to convince her mind to accept a sort of order and become empty, free from troubling thoughts, even if she wanted to indulge on them. But she didn’t find a way. Kylo was always there and even on Ahch-To his deep laugh echoed, the black waves of his hair stretched out on the pillow and then…

“… but the times are changing. And the sensitive souls are the firsts to suffer more.”

Luke broke the silence, looking at Rey first and then at the room, like he was considering the weight of his words. He usually gave advice to his padawan, but that sentence sounded like a confidence, as he was warning her because he loved her, and he had helped her growing up and in the path pf discovering herself. She could have described his master even without looking at him, and he could have detected every thought passing through her padawan’s mind while she was training, when she stretched her lips to avoid the escape of her thoughts. But some secrets lingered in the air, and Luke didn’t know anything about Kylo. It was not for him to know.

“Yes, master.”

She didn’t have a better answer for him. They stood up, recalling their crystals and smoothing their trousers messed by the training: the light of the day began to fade away. Coruscant’s buildings drank the orange light of the sunset, a slow sound of steps accompanied the cool air. A staff, maybe master’s Yoda one, hit the stone floor. Her hair began to fall down, her last bun dangled down on her neck, but she didn’t want to raise her arms and tie it back in its place.  
Luke broke the silence again, and his worries seemed even more evident.

“Rey… be careful of who you show your weaknesses to. You may think you always have everything under control, but the calm before the storm is always hard to figure out in time… don’t let them drag you down. Stay in alert.”

He stood in front of the window, serious and silent. _He knows,_ that was her first thought, but she didn’t turn it into words: she only looked at him for a brief moment, then bowed down and came out of the room, her mind caught in a storm. Her lips were dry. She tried to moist them with her tongue, with no success.

 

 

*

 

 

They met by chance, in one of those meetings destined to change entire lives, disguised as normal days, as simple Jedi routine. _We have to escort Senator Yavok at the opera’s opening night, nothing interesting,_ Luke warned her before accepting that mission for him and for his padawan. There would have been some Sith Order members with one of their leaders, a man known as Lord Snoke, who already worried the Jedi Order in the past… but hostilities were to be put apart, at least for that night. Rey wore a new uniform, the one for great events that was folded in her wardrobe, and together with her master she crossed the threshold of the Grand Theatre of the Republic. She held her nose up in the air, dazzled by marvelous lights and architectures all around her. The atrium counted more sculptures than people and it was beautiful to see their stone skin shine with golden and silver lights, while the crowd of guests moved into the room and reached for the seats in the upper section, on the most prestigious daises, or the lower one, on less expensive seats. Luke came first and reached their daises, a small tribune shaded by a velvet red curtain, and they took their seat quietly, waiting for the start and looking around.

 

That was the exact moment she saw him, sat opposite to them, in the daises reserved to the Sith acolytes and occupied by three people. He wore a black cap, elegant but simple, with an high collar and a silver brooch on the front part of his shirt with a symbol she couldn’t identify. His hair was black too, soft waves that framed his face and fell graciously behind his ears. She couldn’t see his eye color, but his lips stood out on his face, soft like a child’s, tight in a focused expression. She’d have loved them with the passing of time, but she didn’t know yet.

Luke didn’t pay attention to her during the play, neither during those ten minutes of pause while they stood up to stretch their legs and Rey browsed around the theatre: his master was following Senator Yavok, who kept praising the theatre’s artistic director for the play. They met in the main hallway, she and the young apprentice dressed in black, and they exchanged a look. His eyes were brown, charming, she felt his eyes on her for the rest of the evening. She didn’t know if that feeling excited her or made her angry for that sudden inner turmoil.

They introduced themselves to one another only months after, during a diplomatic meeting between their Orders, with all the Jedi Council and Lord Snoke too. His name was Kylo Ren and he was a boy only a few years older than her, but his voice was deep and filled with an older wisdom.  
The memories appeared in her mind all together, running like in fear of being left behind, while the girl was walking towards their usual place of meeting in the underworld. She had snorted again, asking him to change club, but in the end they were fond of that place full of smoke and quiet rooms, and only fixing another date made them feel free. Guilty – she felt guilty – but free.

They made love without thinking, their voices and the way their hands touched each other’s was the only thing that mattered. Kylo gave slow, lazy kisses on her stomach, shoulders, nape. Rey held herself back during the first times, afraid of someone who could have heard them or recognized her by her voice… she bit her lips, clinging to the sheets with white knuckles, but she didn’t voice her pleasure. Then, after some time, she understood that it was useless to hold back, that no Jedi would have looked for her in that place. Luke thought she was strolling for Coruscant, maybe searching for herself, perhaps along with a company the Jedi Path would never have permitted; anyway, nobody would have imagined her in the underworld, with a young and tall Sith, his lips focused on secret words only she could have listened to after their intercourse, laying on sheets warmed by sweat and pleasure. She was happy, even if that happiness was forbidden.

“Don’t you suffer when you have to restrain your feelings, every day?” he asked her that night, while he was caressing her hair loosened on his chest. Only a slight breath of air entered from the window, touching their skin gently. Rey lifted her gaze and captured his, amazed by the tiny particles of gold trapped in his eyes. Someone was cleaning dishes in the kitchen down there and a door slammed, accompanied by loud voices.

“I don’t know” she murmured, hiding her lips against his chest. The truth was she didn’t know well how to answer, Kylo had clearly understood what her point was and there was nothing to add: why do the Jedi have to distance themselves from the world? Wouldn’t have been better to surrender to a feeling and examine it, trying to understand the right way to live it? But she kept running away, like everyone else. She would never had the courage to ask Luke, to confess him she was in love and maybe that a certain boy actually loved her back.

“You don’t know or you don’t want to know?”

He pushed her to answer: Kylo Ren was not one who could let interesting discussions fall. He caressed her hair again and kept on murmuring, maybe to Rey or to himself.

“The Sith learn to feed on their emotions, positive or negative ones, it’s the same. They make us feel alive, they’re part of us… why do you want to hide them? If you reject something, it will come back to torment you, making you throw off your balance. You can accept your emotions and let them make you stronger, instead. I knew Jedi who loved, their feelings consumed them until they suffered physically for them, but no one had ever admitted it would have been easier to learn something from those feelings… you’re so full of pride, and cold. So restrained. Aren’t you tired?”

“Emotions bring you out of your path, and make impossible to focus in what’s good for the collective.” That topic was no news, masters had always repeated it. “If I’d only think to myself and obey to my desires, my mission would be put in the background. It wouldn’t be fair.”

“You really believe you can’t be a good Jedi if you stay with me?”

Rey didn’t answer. Kylo’s heart beat calmly, his voice expressed the same quiet awareness, the one of who believed in their ideas and wasn’t afraid to voice them out. Night city lights touched the scar on his face, the one he got on Geonosis or Cato Neimodia, she couldn’t remember. She liked to kiss it, to brush a finger lightly on it, thinking about the time they were two complete strangers. What if there was a way to unite the feeling that made her so happy and her life in the Order?  
Masters told her the Sith only lived by extremes, that they used others for their purposes and were dominated by their tantrums, incapable of bringing balance to their existences: she always accepted those words as a lesson, an absolute truth, now they only seemed imposed by an old preconception. She didn’t share every single decision of her Order and Kylo was there with her, fragile, human. He could have killed her whenever he wanted to, but he didn’t. He observed her, his lips closed.  
He was waiting for an answer.

“I don’t think I’m the right person to ask about these matters.”

“You’re right. You totally surrender to your feelings, am I wrong?”

She stood up, dressed only of the dim light that filled the room. Kylo gave her an amused smile: he succeeded. He let Rey attack his neck with little bites, grasping to his body and adjusting herself between his legs until he let a moan out. Rey would have never answer with words, but those kisses and bites spoke for her.

 

 

*

 

 

 

Her grandfather left the Jedi Order years before: no one knew why. Obi-Wan Kenobi was one of the most respected Jedi masters, a member of the Council admired by many people and friends. He was intelligent, ironic, a good-hearted man, he knew how to think over by himself and to guide everyone on their way: even people who didn’t know him well knew they could trust him.

The reason behind his leaving was clear, but ignored by many: he had nursed a lie inside himself for too many years, until he couldn’t bear its weight anymore.

He fell in love when he was only a boy, a padawan full of dreams who finally made his biggest one come true: becoming a Jedi Knight. She was the Duchess of Mandalore, a beautiful woman intelligent and witty, running away from a civil war that was destroying her planet. The Council gave order to his grandfather and master Qui-Gonn Jinn to protect the Duchess, they had accomplished it, but the time spent together brought something else to the two young people. What Rey knew about them came from his father’s tales and from the few thing his grandfather told her when she was a child, so she always filled that tale with colors and details of her imagination: she saw her grandmother as a noble woman, dressed in regal clothes, accompanied by two Jedi, eyes full of respect that would have become love with the passing of years. Next to her there was her grandfather, his face free from the marks brought by the time, eyes brilliant and young, similar to her father. She didn’t know how they had met again after all those years, how and if her father got back in touch with the family: she had always lived on Jakku, cradled by desert winds, watched by an elder, gentle Jedi who never abandoned her. She didn’t know about her father, maybe that distance had helped her on her way of separation from every bond.

Rey walked slowly on the Temple’s courtyard, daylight standing out at her back like a cape, and she was lost in her thoughts. From the moment Luke took her under his wing she almost never came back to Jakku, if not for some missions. The last time she had got in touch with Obi-Wan Kenobi it was thanks to the HoloNet, like a secret, a gift her master gave her because she felt homesick… and perhaps also because he missed the man who was his former master. Life was a cycle, her grandmother used to say: Obi-Wan trained Luke, Luke came back to take Rey with him. What was she going to do? Was she going to ever become a master to a new padawan? Was she going to walk like that with a younger boy or a girl, wise and sure of her talent like she had never been until then?

There were hard times, Luke had told her. Has life ever been lacking of challenges?

Sometimes she regretted spending so little time with her grandmother. She died when Rey was only a little girl, too young to remember her well, and the only traces left of her presence were the sentences Obi-Wan remembered sometimes, to bring her back to life. She’d have asked her how she had reconciled her duties with what made her happy, what were their problems as a couple, if she had ever thought of giving in, forgetting what was between them. In some way, only relying on her feelings, she knew Satine would have understood her. Telling the truth to his grandfather was an uncomfortable option, almost the same as telling all that story to Luke: Obi-Wan and his granddaughter lived similar situations, but the fear of disappointing him was too big, she couldn’t overcome it.  
Coruscant Prime set in his full brightness, embraced by the tall shapes of sky scrapers. Some masters liked to seat on the stone stairs and watch that star move in the sky, letting the night and some other kind of thoughts come with it. Rey was among them: she and Luke liked to do that, they were introverted, reflective people who could stay in their corner even for hours, thinking about what surrounded them. Thinking made her happy, and observing the world helped her to find her inner order, a purpose in life. Coruscant Prime’s eye watched everyone, its stillness reassured her.

There were hard times, the whole galaxy underwent it: war was almost over, but balance was a far away memory. People said cleaver minds find the solution for their problems during those times, so maybe she was going to find her way as well.

She sighed and lifted her head, letting the beams of light dance under her eyelids. The star kept on setting, but she couldn’t see it.

 

 

*

 

 

She had trained with Luke again and made her crystal float, with more success than the previous times. Her master rewarded her with a proud smile, and that joy filled her up like a sunbeam from Coruscant Prime, even when she fell asleep.  
The evening came and she went back into Kylo’s arms. They walked across the streets of the underworld without their hoods on, without worrying about the people who might have recognized them. The breeze made her hands cold: instinctively, Rey searched for a contact with the boy to make them warmer. He let her do that, and smiled.

“It seems that a storm is approaching” he said, looking at the sky. She didn’t pay attention to him. They were there, together: everything else didn’t matter to her.

 

 

*

 

 

Suddenly, the walls of the place where she had grown up were suffocating her with their grasp. She didn’t feel like home anymore, she turned her look to every corner and every person she met seemed like a complete stranger.

She tried to fight that feeling, repeating herself that it wouldn’t have lasted for long, but how could you live with the constant perception of being in the wrong place at the wrong time?

 

 

*

 

 

It was a troubled time, her master had told her. Rey listened to him like she always did, but not even in her worst nightmares she could have thought that the worst possible case scenarios were coming to life.

One night he woke her up all of a sudden, waiting only a few minutes for her to dress up. Out there the battle flared up: soldiers dressed in white run with rifles in hand, shooting and answering to orders, agitated voices asked questions to one another, some others were crying. Masters were running away, but in the distance – or were they close? They seemed to come from inside of the Temple! – some voices screamed and then faded. Rey recognized Sovi’s one, a padawan friend of her, and was scared.  
Luke led her in one of the highest part of the building, the terrace, pulling her arm with urgency. He took her hands in a feverish grip, a scared one, and the look he gave her was scared, too.

“Rey, you have to listen to me. Listen well, because our life is at stake. They’re searching for us: someone entered the Temple and killed as many of us as he could, and the Senate was overthrown. Master Yoda warned us that the situation was collapsing, but…” he stopped, like he was looking for much air to breathe. He gulped. “We have to go, it’s impossible to manage the situation. I kept in contact with master Windu, he run away and he’s coming here to pick you up… he tracked some of us out for some missions, maybe we could find a safe place to organize our Order again. I want you to be safe, this is why you have to wait here. Do you understand?”

“And you, master? What will you do?”

Luke flexed his metallic fingers, the hand he lost years before in an accident Rey did know nothing about. How many things had he hidden from her? The war, the first signs of that attack, the fact someone wanted to eliminate them all and that they were probably succeeding at it?

“I have to gather as many padawan as I can. They don’t deserve what’s happening, no one does. I’ll go back inside… and what the Force wants to happen, will happen.”

“No! I have to go there, you don’t…”

“Rey.” Luke stopped her with a gentle gesture, so strangely gentle for a moment like that. “I’m old, you’re a capable and young Jedi. If someone has to sacrifice themselves, that one must be me. Stay here… and please, stay safe. Keep your saber with you and wait for master Windu. You have to save your life, at all costs.”  
She stared at her lightsaber’s hilt, cold metal touching her cold palm, and another hilt came to her mind. Light from two ends, a synthetic kyber. Sith. The missing piece.

“Master… the Sith did this, right?”

He shook his head, surprising her. “Yes and no. Nobody knows, but the man who burst in had a red saber in his hand… he’s one of Snoke’s followers, or he looks like one of them. But it doesn’t matter, we have to think about us now, not them.”  
The girl turned her back on him and began to run for the door, her steps echoing so loud they almost deafened her. It was so sudden that Luke didn’t have the time to notice, nor to stop her: she ran breathlessly for the exit, far from the slaughter on the inside, from the fading voices, driven by a feeling that made her heart and throat burn. She felt it, he was somewhere near and he was waiting for her. He always knew where and when to find the worst place, after all.

In front of the Temple’s entrance, a crowd of tall men, all dressed in black stood still, sabers in hands, as if they were waiting for someone. One of them distanced himself from the group: his hilt shook, the energy coming from the two ends was red and so strong his hand trembled. Before he had put down his hood, showing his child lips and dark eyes, Rey recognized him.  
Kylo was there. Once again, their bond had warned her before things happened.  
The group behind them spread out, ready to attack her: the girl turn her saber on and held it tight, to show them she wasn’t going anywhere without resisting them first, but Kylo reached for them and stopped every possible fight. He took her away like Luke had done before and let his men spread for the place. She would have never known if they really had something to do with all that was happening.

The girl didn’t give him time to start. “Why did they attack the Temple? Troops are everywhere… I heard some shootings, the masters are running away!”

Kylo seemed… sad? He kept his eyes down, but she could see a sparkle of an unhappy light. He was fighting something, and only the Force knew what.

“Lord Vader is carrying on with his duty… but I’m here for you. Rey… run away with me. Let’s go away, you have nothing to do here.”

“Are you crazy? My master is looking for help, I can’t leave him behind!” She turned her head from left to right, full of anguish. Explosions seem to have ceased, but what was happening in the Temple? She hoped the lack of sounds coming from inside meant Luke was taking control of the situation, in some way. She clenched her fists.

“You think you can do something against well trained and armed Siths? Why do you think I’m here, instead of being at Lord Snoke’s side?”. He shook her shoulders and finally Rey could give a name to the feeling that filled his words: worry. He was desperate like her, but he succeeded at hiding it. “You can’t do nothing now. I’ll do anything just to keep you safe… I can go away with you, take you somewhere and stay there until the situation gets better, but I won’t leave you here. I can’t. Please, Rey… don’t be unreasonable. Come with me.”  
She took a step back. Tears filled her eyes so much she couldn’t see anything, her hands were shaking, her saber about to fall to the ground. Luke asked her the same, to run away and leave everyone behind… and like she had disobeyed him, she couldn’t just listen to the man she thought she loved.

“I can’t, Kylo. I just… can’t.”

“If you could just give up…”

“Come with me!” she cried, and she was shouting. A group of soldiers was going to enter in the Temple, rifles at their sides, waiting for orders. Were they alone, or did they depend on the men dressed in black? Luke had perhaps taken some padawan with him, she hoped. For a moment, she saw Kylo’s eyes illuminated by a different light, but the moment after he shook his head. She asked too much.

“I can’t.”

“If I can run away with you, you can follow me in the same way!”

“It’s not the same thing. Rey… I would really like to follow you, but I can’t. You must choose a side, we can’t hide ourselves and look at the world moving around us anymore. It won’t ignore us. You can either run away or come with me, and I can think about a place where you can be safe. The choice is yours… but I will always be by your side, Rey.”

She wiped her tears away. A nervous laugh escaped from her lips, turning into a sob.

“Through a droid’s message?”  
“It might be a good idea.”

Rey looked into his eyes and, for the first time, she could read everything she never understood of him. His tormented soul he carried like a burden, his dark eyes, that secret way of smiling that hid his true thoughts, only occasionally letting something go. She took his hand and felt his fingers still cold, then she leaned forward to look for a more intimate contact. He pulled her hands away and grabbed her face to kiss her, an intense kiss, and a sad one too.  
She couldn’t imagine for how long they stayed that way, held tight in a hug strong like the ones they had exchanged in their underworld nights, but the battle near them was going on with a steady pace. She moved away from Kylo and felt other tears, not hers, on her cheeks.

“So, is this a goodbye?”

He smiled back. “I don’t think so. You know where to find me… you always knew. If the Force will serve us well, our ways will cross again.”

“If the Force will be with us, you mean.”

He smiled, then lifted his head. A small starship was coming down to Rey, a door held open revealing a man’s face, with a purple light that shone while the saber turned on. Master Windu. The girl threw Kylo a glance, hesitant.

“Go, Rey. Don’t be worried about me… this is your destiny, you have to follow it. I will find a way to see you again.”

He grasped her hand. Rey looked at him again, but neither of them said a word: Kylo pushed her away gently, but with determination. Another run, this time tears didn’t fall: she only wanted to grab every hope, even the smallest one. She jumped inside the door, looked down and stared at Kylo’s dark hair, at the hood he lifted and at his lightsaber, and thought about all the times she played with that cape, mocking him, at the times he got dressed again after their nights together. He scolded her when she took his cape, then pressing her towards the bed and trying to get it back. It seemed a memory from another life, a novel read years before, but they actually were like that, once, and the boy that was moving away used to call her by her name, telling her things he didn’t say to no one else. She felt tears clouding her eyes again: clenching her fists, she hoped that feeling would pass soon. But somehow, thinking they were going to meet again was the right thought since the very beginning. If the Force – or destiny, or whatever she had no idea of – had crossed their ways, why don’t believe in it once more?

The ship rotated towards the terrace where she was with Luke just minutes before, and master Windu took off to search for him. Rey pulled her head out of the window, but Kylo had disappeared.

 

Not for so long, she told to herself, and hoped she was right.

**Author's Note:**

> *takes a deep breath*  
> I really didn't believe I would have finished this fic, seriously. I've began with really different ideas, then I changed them and developed my Jedi!Rey and my Sith!Kylo one step at a time, with patience and love, because they are really my babies and I'd write pages and pages about them... but they're so different from the first drafts I've wrote you could say the story took his way and "wrote itself". Still, I'm quite happy with the result, even if it's not common, for me.  
> An amazing group of people made this journey even more amazing, and I have to thank all of them because they are so special and precious, every one of them: my lovely bae Ailisea (who's also my precious beta-reader and ALWAYS helps and encourages me with her love <3), and my "Ring in the Reylo Skype Chat" crew, for their kindness and all the laughs and SW related fangirling. Keep on being awesome, 'cause you deserve all the best.  
> Thanks to you too, dear fic recipient: I really hope my fic matched all of your expectations! <3


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